Colorado Cousins!!

My week in Colorado was lovely. I feel like, for me, rest requires the right mix of hugs, encouragement, and space, and that's exactly what I got while I was there.

The Girls rode Horses for the First time!

One thing that was, although brief, super-cool, was getting to share during chapel at my cousins' school. My basic message was "God has plans for you, following Him is crazy fun and really hard sometimes, but you should do it." After sharing for like five minutes, a couple of the students came up, one of them was Russian, and the other one felt called to mission in Turkey someday, and were inspired. Kids are awesome. Then I shared with Maiya's class, the questions they asked were really interesting and cool. We sang "Yo Tengo un amigo" and I taught them how to say "Paka" (Пока=Good-bye in informal Russian). So as I was leaving they were all like "Paka! Paka!" It was super-cool. I remember when I was like 8 we sang "Jesus Loves Me" in Spanish in my Sunday School class, and I still remembered a few of the words when I started going on missions trips to Mexico. So I hope some of that sticks.

My older cousin's husband just published a book of poetry. This needs to be a goal completed in the next year. :)

My cousins like taking pictures.

My little cousins were so precious. They were super-excited to buy my cards and give some of their offering money to me. I never know what to do in those sorts of situations. It mixes up my head and makes me feel bad, cuz the people who often have less give most generously. Like in SoCal, I shared with a couple small groups and was at church with a lot of wealthy people, praying "ok God, I know you could use one of these people to fund my whole summer, but I'm gonna wait on you." (I mean, almost ALL of their cars are way nicer than they need. (that's my impatience))  And my dear friends there did give me enough support to buy my Lithuania ticket. But when I went to this little church in Ensenada, where I've served before, but I haven't been there for two years, they put me in the pulpit on one day's notice and gave me the entire offering. But it's the kids who support my ministry with a pure heart, those are the ones that really challenge me to make the most of every last dollar and remind me that God will provide me with just enough.

Cows at Camp Idrahaje, where my sister will work this summer!

The last night I was there, my aunt got the girls together and we sang worship songs by the fire. The girls were sometimes more interested in "Old McDonald" or "Larry-boy" but they enjoyed the time, it was special. I prayed over the girls before they went to bed, and Aliya asks her mom "how does James know that I'm like this?" It was cute, but it also was powerful to see how praying over her made an impression on her. I love praying over people. After the girls went to bed, we did a time of extended prayer, mis tíos y yo, that lead naturally into some worship. It was awesome to take everything, our worries, our whole family, before God in prayer.  You should try it sometime.  :)